Shopping for Christmas gifts at Christmas Tree Shops
Christmas is a very important holiday all around the world, and United states of America are not an exception. Even people who are not religious, put up a Christmas tree, decorate it and put gifts under it, and decorate the house with bright Christmas lights.
The family that I work for, is not religious, but they do all of the above every year. And a big part of Christmas spirit, especially for the kids, is giving and receiving Christmas gifts. Every year, they set a budget everybody should spend on Christmas gifts for the others. This year, we are supposed to spend from fifteen to twenty dollars per person on Christmas gift. This might not seem much, but if you know where to look, you can find amazing gifts for that price. One of my favorite stores for cheap, but decent quality Christmas gifts is called Christmas Tree Shops.
Where is this amazing store situated?
Christmas Tree Shops is a chain and you can find their stores all across the United states of America. The one that I visited, is situated on 2264 Miamisburg - Centerville road in Dayton, Ohio, basically right next to the Dayton mall. You will find it in a complex with several other cool stores, including Party City, Five Below and Hallmark. And even if the store is called Christmas Tree Shops, it is open throughout the year. But of course you will not find as many Christmas items there in the middle of summer as you will closer to Christmas time.
You will see this sign from far away.
What can you buy in Christmas Tree Shops?
The first time I saw that store, I literally thought they are just selling Christmas trees. Well, in fact, they do, but only a small part of the store is actually dedicated to Christmas trees. The rest of the store sells Christmas decorations, very cheap toys and board games, Christmas candy, home decoration items (both regular and with Christmas motives), Christmas clothes, and in the back of the store, you can also find some everyday items.
So when I was there, looking for gifts, these were some of my favourite items:
The rack with items that cost one dollar and two dollars. This includes candy, different Christmas - themed stickers, scrapbooks, ornaments and other Christmas kitsch, good for stuffing the Christmas stockings.
Christmas - themed gift bags. I am not a big fan of overdecorating for Christmas and sometimes having everything Christmas - themed is just too much for me, I found those gift bags extremely cute. And cheap! There is a whole rack of them, so if you do not find the one you like, you must be really picky.
Cheap board games and toys. This is where I got Christmas gifts for the kids. If you go to Toys ‘ R ‘ Us or any other ‘famous’ store for kids, you will have to pay at least thirty dollars for a board game. In Christmas Tree Shops, you will find these same board games (the only difference is that they are not branded) for under twenty dollars.
This part of the store also has some cool do - it - yourself style toys for fifteen dollars and under. My favorites include the kit for making your own slime (this is a hit in the United states of America this year, and even as an adult, I love playing with it), steam - powered rocket, a kit for making your own little boat and others.
This picture shows only a small part of their board game collection.
Framed pictures and miscellaneous items. Some of the framed pictures were pretty cool. Unfortunatey, since I most likely not staying in the United states of America forever, I did not buy any, because they would not fit in my suitcase. Miscellaneous itams include notebooks, stickers and scrapbooks.
And the best section - ugly Christmas sweaters. To be honest, I only own one ugly Christmas sweater. I bought it for a funny Christmas picture. And it really is ugly, but it is super comfortable! And I think ugly Christmas sweater designers are going more out of their way each year to create them as hilarious as possible. This year most popular motives include cats and llamas. You know you need one!
Bonus: my advice for stress - free Christmas gifts shopping
Make a list of gifts you want to buy before you head to the store. If you know, at least approximately, what to buy, you will be less distracted and overwhelmed with all the gift choices you will have once arriving to the store.
Start early! You will avoid the crowds, and there will be more choices. I bought a major part of my Christmas gifts today. If you are postponing the gift shopping until the last minute, you will have to deal with the endless crowds of people who also waited until right before Christmas to buy their gifts, and you will most likely find out that the store is out of the item you really wanted to buy.
Do not just go to one store and buy the first thing that looks cool and is reasonably cheap. First of all, look for something that the person you are buying a gift for, will like. Everybody likes personalized gifts. Secondly, if you have an idea what you want to buy, visit multiple stores - you might find the same item for half the price in the next store!
Nowadays, you can always check prices on the internet, which is useful, but I do not like to buy Christmas gifts online for several reasons. I like to browse through different stores, and snow or any other unexpected events might prevent your gift to be shipped to you on time, which can be incredibly stressful.
Set a budget. In the past, I used to spend way too much money on Christmas gifts simply because I did not set an approximate budget beforehand. If you know exactly how much you are willing to spend, it is much easier to find suitable gifts. Without a budget, you will be looking at things and think: ‘Oh, this looks nice. This looks nice too, I might as well buy both things.’
A few words for the end…
Christmas gift shopping can be both amazing and stressful. I hope that I made it a little easier for you with the tips in this blog post. And if you are located in the United states of America, Christmas Tree Shops is the first place I would look when shopping for reasonably priced Christmas gifts.
